A Grave Situation.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 4, 13 August 1915, Page 3

A Grave Situation.

“ To Stew or Not to Stew ? ” (By Wireless.) Special Correspondent, Trentham, This Day. The well-known Trentham Nows Bureau (situated near the medical lines), which lias throughout the war done such good service in circulating early and accurate information on matters connected with the titanic struggle now raging, yesterday transmitted the following wireless message, which has caused no little excitoraent aboard the Manuganui:— “ For some time past an uneasy feeling has prevailed that all is

i not well ill connection . with the , raising and equipping of our Expeditionary Forces. Many wild rumours have been set in ; motion, most of them too absurd ! to merita moment’s consideration, , others, v hich though vague, ; have had sufficient appearance of truth to cause considerable public anxiety. It was with a view to ascertaining whether any ground existed for this anxiety j that our representative yesterday , ! approached the Hon. Jas. Oilen. “ No, said Mr Oilen, ‘no good purpose could be served by' my saying- that everything is as it should be- At the same time there is no occasion for pessimism. Fortunately, I am in a position to take the public into my confidence, so that I may as well say at once, what the trouble is. No doubt many people have already guessed what it is. The cold fact is that our stew factories at Trentham are not turning out enough stew ; not nearly enough. Personally, I am confident that when the stew workers realise the true position the output will be doubled or even trebled, but at present it would be idle for me to pretend that the situation is not very grave. Later in the day Mr Oilen visited Trentham and delivered a stirring address to the stew workers. He received an en- : thusiastic reception, both from < the workers themselves and from the 6th and 7th reinforcements and Lord Liverpools Very : Own, who were drawn up in i hollow square to listen to his remarks. “At the outset, Mr Oilen said he wished to apologise for the unavoidable absonce of the Prime Minister, who, that morning, had said in his presence, “ If we are to win this war we must have stew and still more stew. ” (Deafening cheers.) “ Continuing, Mr Oilen said he wished to say a few words to those present on this question of stew. They all knew what he meant by stew. 1 A member of the 6th : “ Too, £ adjective, right! ” ] A Tin Hat: “ Silence ! Not a move. You’re on parade.’ “ Mr Oilen: Of course, I am not referring to that class of stew which a certain lieutenant gets 1 into when called upon to put g men through company drill. (Laughter). No. doubt, there are points of resemblance between the two, inasmuch as both are £ wet. (Loud laughter, and cries of ‘Good old Jimmy. Good old lad. ’) Nor am I referring to Col. Stew, but, as Kipling says, “ That is another story. ” But this is not the time for joking. The 'j Empire is fighting for her life against a cruel and ruthless foe. When I speak of stew I mean of course, that stew through the use of which the sth have been able , to leave behind them the glorious, the imperishable tradi- £ tion that “ old soldiers never die. I wish to impress upon you, 1 though, that it is only old soldiers I who live on stow that never die. It was stew, and stew alone, .. that made thesththe most soldierly body of men who ever left New Zealand. I deeply l-egret that it was at times found necessary to serve out chops to tho 4th. A member of the 6th (fomerly . of the sth, 4th, 3rd and 2nd) : j “ Nine chops to eight men." A Tin liat: “ Fall to the rear * that man.”

Continuing his remarks, Mr. Ollen said lie hoped such a state of affairs would never arise again. He trusted that it would never again be necessary to serve out a chop to a single soldier. But all depended on the stew workers —our lives, our liberties. Without their wholehearted support, all our efforts were in vain. The Government and the military authorities had their hands full. As they knew, the Government was engaged in the manufacture of another useful commodity. They had undertaken to supply 2,000 liver pills by October. (Laughter.) The military authorities, too, had more to do than they could cope with, with the summer almost upon them, it was urgently necessary for them to metal and light the camp, build floors for the tents and push on with the hutments and the hospital. He whuffl quote some figures which, he ventured to say, would astonish them and help them to realise the magnitude of the task which the country had undertaken. When he told them that in yesterday’s stew alone live onions three carrots, an antichoke and a potato had been used —(At this point the camp quartermaster had an apoplectic fit.) —they would see how our resources weie going to be strained before the war ended. “There was another question to which he was very reluctantly compelled to refer, namely, the drink question. A stew-worker : “ Good old shirker ” Mr Ollen : “ 1 dont wish to prevent any man from drinking in moderation, but I do ask the workers to be reasonable. Being intoxicated more than seven times a week is unreasonable. The stew workers :‘ No danger.’ Mr Ollen : I say it is.

The Stew-worker: N° bally danger. (Uproar, and cries of “Close your trap. Put him in Bill Massey’s ostrich farm.”) Mr Oilen: not only does it diminish the output, but, I contend the quality of the stew cannot fail to be affected by the workers liavingsleptin the d ain outside the factory. Alter speaking for an hour and a quarter, Mr Oilen said he did not wish to say any more. He would leave it to the good sense and patriotism of the stew workers. Mr Oilen then concluded an eloquent speech by an earnest appeal to the workers to remember that they were men, and Britishers, and to put forth their best efforts to increase the output of stew and thereby to aid materially in bringing the present dreadful strife to an end. Mr’Ollen’s speech has excited considerable comment, but has to some extent allayed anxiety. Many suggestions have been made as to liow the present difficulty should be overcome. Perhaps the one which finds mest favour is that a new port-’ folio should be created and that Captain John Bunny would make an admirable Minister of Stew, his place as Inspector of Oilsheets would he difficult to fill. Probably it would take two officers to fill it. —Maunganuian.